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ness and its pleasing grain patterns. The trim I designed is simple. Casings around windows and doors are lx4s, accented by a deep bullnose cap on top of the head casing. Side and head casings meet with butt joints. We relieved the backs of the side casings to compensate for irregularities between the jambs and the drywall. The backs of the head casings aren't relieved, though, because their end grain is exposed. Installing the head casings was tedious; getting them to sit flat against the wall and flush with the side casings required lots of fitting and refitting, but it was worth the effort. The 7-in. wide baseboard is also topped The entry stair rail (photo below) consists of black Colorcore Formica sandwiched between two layers of red oak and rabbeted to slip over the top of an oak Ix6. In the kitchen (photo above), European-style cabinets are faced with birch plywood doors and drawers, laminated on the edges and backs with black Formica to match the countertops. dow seat lit by a glass-block window (photo left) occupies the angled wall that skirts the driveway, punctuating the transition from the front to the back of the house. An oak win- with a bullnose cap. The budget precluded solid-oak base in the depth I wanted, so we used 6-in. wide strips of 'h-in. oak-veneered plywood in conjunction with solid-oak caps and quarter-round shoes. The handrail consists of a layer of black Colorcore Formica sandwiched between two lengths of red-oak bullnose, which are rabbeted to fit over the top edge of an oak lx6 (bottom right photo). Contact cement holds the handrail sandwich together. The rail is screwed to a continuous 1 'h-in. by 2'h-in. oak block that's, in turn, screwed to the wall. All interior walls are drywall, painted white. On the first floor, white-oak flooring is finished with moisture-cure urethane in a natural color. All doors and trim are finished with clear lacquer. Built-ins-The kitchen, though handsome when completed, quickly blew our budget and gave us headaches. The cabinets I designed are European-style, with flush-face doors and concealed hinges (top photo). The 3/4-in. birch plywood doors are edged with black Colorcore Formica. The sample hinge I gave to our cabinetmaker was the wrong one, and he mortised all the doors before we realized it. He had to laminate the insides of the cabinet doors with black Formica to conceal the mortises, then cut new mortises for the correct hinges. The bullnose'shape from the base and head spaced 12 in. o. c. and tapered 2 inches in width to encourage drainage away from the front of the house. The first-floor porch is finished with lx4 T&G yellow pine. Upstairs, the porch is decked with %-in. plywood, then covered with torch-down Derbigum MR-200 modified-bitumen, single-ply membrane roofing (Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, Commercial Roofing Products, Fiberglas Tower, Toledo, Ohio 43659; 419-248-8000). Derbigum MR-200 was also used over the garage and breakfast room. After the membrane was applied, we torched 6-in. wide strips of Derbigum 12 in. o. c. over the joist locations, then placed 2x4 cedar sleepers on top of them. There was no need to nail down the sleep- 50 Fine Homebuilding ers; the weight of 2x6 cedar decking would hold them in place. Open plan, simple details ed the house to feel as spacious as possible. A 48-in. high wall separates the living room from the dining room, without enclosing them (photo previous page). It contains built-in bookshelves, a fireplace, a wood-storage bin and, on the dining-room side, recessed glass shelves. The millwork in Victorian houses is typical- - ly visually heavy, with a fairly elaborate profile. We wanted to keep the substantial feel of the old, but wanted much cleaner lines. Red oak won out over the traditional pine because of its popularity among home buyers, its hard- Inside, we want- casings is repeated at the front edge of the countertop, at the top of the backsplash and at the top edge of the wall cabinets. We left the bullnose end grain exposed at the ends of the counter and backsplash-same as the top casings. Soft, black neoprene pulls from Forms and Surfaces (Hardware Division, Box 5215, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93150; 805-969-772 1) are a stark contrast to the glassy birch doors and drawer fronts. In a bid to accent the juncture between the entry hall and the angled wall on the south side of the first floor, we installed an oak window seat (bottom left photo). The window seat is backed by a large panel of 8-in. glass block, which admits plenty of light while obscuring what would otherwise be a close-up view of the garage doors. Scott Neeley is a designer and builder who now lives in San Francisco, California. W D